Author: Mae @ Rainydayinmay

Desert native who claims the Pacific Northwest at home, while currently residing the Northeast. Lifecoach, Podcaster, PR writer, essay author, imaginary poet and every day dreamer...

Say No To The Dress…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay11 Comments
I haven’t really mentioned it before, but for a (too small) chunk of time we’ve had a completely awesome girl named Aubree living with us. We met Aubree last year when she blindly agreed to nanny for us for a short period of time while I attempted to balance writing and homeschool. The months where I had her help were wonderful, but when last summer came I found that I was nowhere near more balanced than I had been pre-Aubree. 
Anyway, Aubree is here and lovely. She’s brought a really fun element to every day family life. 
One thing about Aubree, that is key to this post is that Aubree is engaged. 
Like many a someday bride-to-be, Aubree is interested in wedding things. 
On the rare occasion, conversations about wedding photographers, wedding cake designers, centerpieces, reception styles and wedding dresses take place. 
Genny loves this. 
Like many a girl-who-dreams-of-becoming-a-bride, many a conversation is centric around similar things. Those of you who know Genny know that she has notebook upon notebook full of sketches and plans for her and her beloved’s nuptial day… 
So, one day we are watching Say Yes To The Dress, {Thanks to Aubree} when I could see the wheels in Gen’s head begin spinning. Magically she caught glimpses of these fit-for-a-queen dresses as well as their $10-14,000 price tags. Teasingly she joked about bankrupting her dad and I with her dream wedding. Candidly (though she was certain I was kidding) I responded. 
A little while later though, less fun spirited, she mentioned her wedding again. 
G- I know I can’t get a wedding gown that is fourteen thousand dollars, but what is a reasonable budget? 
Yes, she’s twelve. 
M- well, since we’ve got a little time I can’t be certain but I’m thinking no more than five or six hundred dollars. Again, we have time, so I’m not sure. 
G- What?!?! I can’t even find a dress for that price! 
M- Technically speaking, you could find a dress for $50 depending on how creative you want to be upon looking for it. 
Needless to say, I have a feeling this discussion isn’t over. All I have to say is, it’s good that she’s all about the fashion design… Perhaps she needs to stop planning her chocolate and nacho cheese fountain reception and start working on dress design. In fact, after all of these years of struggling to find consequences that work for her, I’m thinking that I may finally have my bargaining chip… 
It’s too bad you chose to steal _____________, that’s $25 off your dress budget. 

Oh, did you seriously just rip that t-shirt to shreds? Well, another $15 off your dress budget. 
If she plays her cards right, she’ll be buying US beautifully designed clothes for this completely hypothetical wedding. 
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Journaling {week three}

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay10 Comments
.In my life this week…
I had the unexpectedly cool opportunity to reconnect with my high school BFF. I never thought it was something that would happen, and it pretty much pushed everything remotely cool out of the way. :) 


Second follow up, on the coolness scale though, would be Pinterest… addictive, but so cool. 
In our homeschool this week…
We went on a field trip to our local Bird’s of Prey center. I felt like I learned just as much as Gen, if not more… I totally planned on uploading photos this evening, but it was a packed night and I just didn’t get to it… 


Geometry (6th grade) brought us some challenges and we had to wait for Dad to get home and intervene. (Thank God for daddies!) 


Genny wrapped up her language arts curriculum! I am so excited… SO close to being done!
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
This weekend we are going to the Farmer’s Market and taking my two awesome little nephews (5 & 6) out on a date. I love it when we get quality time with them! Not sure yet, what we will do. The world is our oyster… 
Also, fingers crossed (and rain clouds staying away) that we might make it to the drive in theater… 
My favorite thing this week was…
Easily the sunshine. Even thought it’s been a little cooler than I’d like, the sunshine trumps everything! 
What’s working/not working for us…
I’ve been thinking a lot about next year and a few things we’ll have to do differently. We’ve been in “auto function” mode for a few months, in some areas and now that the school season is almost over- i’ve been content to keep them that way. Sure enough though, I’ll be researching idea to help our routine more. 
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…
curious as to how much of the summer other moms devote to planning out the following school year? 
A photo, video, link, or quote to share
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Sensually Speaking…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay3 Comments
There is something about different segments of a moment which trigger different nostalgic reactions. The sound of an airplane overhead, on a clear sunny day triggers long hot Phoenix summer days. I don’t know why that one particular thing takes me back there, to those days of childhood summers… In an instant though, I can feel like those afternoons of splashing in my aunt’s swimming pool and going to Baskin Robbins after dinner were just yesterday… 
Another thing is the Idaho autumn air. Sometimes it can waft this certain way and I’m back at fourteen… in love… all of those feelings just swirl right up like a pile of crunchy leaves. 
Genny has trickery of the senses as well… 
As a reoccurring pattern for such things, where she is concerned, we’ve noticed that nostalgia induced memories seldom existed. It’s kind of funny, actually. For instance, yesterday afternoon she starts telling me about how the blossoms on this one particular tree reminded her of an afternoon (when we lived in Michigan) where I picked her up from school early so that i could take her to Starbucks and dress shopping. She went into great detail describing to me, not only the afternoon itself but the dress we chose. 
G- Whatever happened to that dress anyway? 
M- Sweetheart, you never had a dress like that. 
G- Yes i did. I did my second grade photos in it, remember? 
M- (showing her the photos from said photo shoot where she is in a peasant top and denim shorts) Nope. 
G- So what did we buy that day then? 
M- That day never happened, Gen. I never pulled you out of school early for Starbucks and shopping. 
G- Maybe it was a dentist appointment then, and I got the D’s mixed up? 
M- um, pretty sure i would not pull you out of school to go to Starbucks on the way to a dental appointment. 
G- I don’t understand. 
She stood there for a few moments, obviously confused, before a brightness dawned and with immense relief she exclaimed, “OH! It was a dream! I remember now. It was a dress that I was going to wear to a birthday party for some boy I had a crush on, I don’t even remember his name. It was at Christmas time, I think.” 
M- Then why did the blossoms on the trees remind you? 
G- I probably had a dream in the spring time. 
hmm… 
I tried to counteract, a few minutes later, about how I remembered this one time when I went to New York City with James MacAvoy and how he reached for my hand as we crossed the street but her sweet little twelve year old face spoke up and said, “Is he someone you worked with when you wrote for the movie ads? I remember you going to LA, but you never told me you went to New York too.” 
Ah. Nevermind… 
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Categories Art